Overload
by LMXB
Summary: As Kara loses control of her powers the others need to work together to find what and who is behind it before they lose Kara forever.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Supergirl or the characters.

 **A/N:** This is a sequel to Prisoner of Prejudice and is set a couple of weeks after the conclusion of that story.

* * *

"You okay?" Winn asked noticing Kara had a pained expression on her face. When he got no response he moved over to her desk and waved his hand in front of her face. The movement seemingly snapping Kara back into focus.

"Winn?" She asked, suddenly aware of his presence in her office.

"You okay?" He repeated.

"Yeah." Kara replied, although it sounded more of a question than a statement.

"Really? Because you don't look so good."

"I just need to concentrate." Kara said as the noise in her head grew.

"It looks like that is the opposite of what you need to do." Winn pointed out before whispering. "Have you lost your powers?"

"No." Kara said shaking her head.

"You want me to call Alex?" He offered.

"No, I'll be okay." Kara said trying to smile at her friend just as her phone rang, the noise causing her to wince in pain.

Looking at the caller display Kara picked up the phone and answered.

"Yes Ms Grant?…..Of course. I'll be right there." She then carefully put the handset down and stood.

"Sorry I have to go."

"Are you sure you should be working?" Winn asked.

"I'm fine." Kara lied as she walked out of her office, Winn on her heels. As she and Winn approached the open plan office and the noise levels increased she found it harder and harder to concentrate. Straining to block out the sounds she eventually made it to Cat's office.

"Yes Ms Grant?"

"I need you to get my lawyers down here."

"Yes Ms Grant." She said turning to go.

"Stay. I made need you get something else as well." Cat demanded forcing Kara to turn back to face her. Reluctantly Kara stayed in Cat's office becoming more and more aware of every noise.

"It's not that easy." James said. "We can't just march in there and demand they hand over their photos." As he spoke Kara struggled to remain focused. It felt as if every sound from the city was being played out in her head causing immense pain. She tried to focus on the breathing techniques her cousin had taught her, but still the sounds grew. The heart beats of James and Cat turning into thundering drum beats in her head.

"My photos." Cat reminded him. "And I don't see why not."

"Technically they're not yours. Besides it's not ethical and I'm fairly sure it's illegal." James countered as Kara felt like she was loosing the battle, the noise and pain becoming so extreme she could no longer concentrate on anything else.

"Just because you used to date a lawyer does not make you an expert on the law." Cat pointed out.

"Please will you all just be quiet" Kara snapped holding her head in pain as she dropped her notepad.

"Kara?" James asked shocked by the outburst.

"I need to make it stop."

"Kara?" James repeated as he approached her. As he reached her though he saw that she was covered in sweat. "You're burning up."

"Can't make it stop." She ground out as she dropped to her knees.

"Make what stop?" James asked as he dropped down in front of Kara before glancing at Cat who looked on concerned.

"Hurts." Kara said her eyes scrunched shut in pain as she squeezed her head.

"What hurts?" James asked.

"Too loud. Why won't it stop?" Kara pleaded before she collapsed unconscious.

"Kara!" James exclaimed as he dropped to her side. "She's still breathing." He said relieved.

"Perhaps you should call her sister?" Cat suggested.

"I'll take her. It will be quicker." James said scooping Kara up in his arms.

-00-

"What gets me is everything we got from the Cadmus database referred to failed projects." Lucy said as she reread the reports in front of her.

"Failed projects would have been archived. It makes sense they were all grouped together." J'onn said.

"True, but you'd still expect a pattern. From looking at the archived projects we should be able to see a direction of travel and infer what their current projects were. But it looks like a random assortment. Which brings me back to my original fear that we are only seeing what they want us to see."

"You are thinking it was staged?" Alex asked.

"I do and that's not all. Maxwell Lord is a clever guy, he should be seeing what I'm seeing. But he hasn't mentioned it. Which could be because he wants to keep his cards close to his chest, maybe he doesn't trust us, but what if it is more than that?" Lucy pressed.

"You think he was involved in Cadmus and he deliberately leaked information? To what end?" J'onn asked.

"When you two found out about Jeremiah being at Cadmus you both decided to take it down. Let's face it Alex, once you have your mind set on something you get tunnel vision. The only way of stopping you going after Cadmus was killing you or shutting it down."

"If I died Kara would take it upon herself to go after Cadmus. So the only way to really stop people going after it was to allow us to find it and shut it down." Alex argued.

"Only what if it isn't shut down, just moved or on hold?" Lucy suggested.

"And you think Lord is what, running it? Working for it?" J'onn asked sceptically.

"I don't know." Lucy confessed. "I just think we would be better not ruling anything out."

"Especially as Max has a history of conducting unethical experiments using alien DNA." Alex pointed out. "Even if he wasn't involved originally I am sure his work would have be appreciated by those who did run it."

"Unfortunately there is no way to prove it one way or the other. But it is starting to feel like we were played." Lucy said, stopping herself before raising her next concern.

"If no one else is going to say it, I will." Alex sighed. "If we really were leaked the information deliberately and we were meant to find Cadmus and my dad, there is a chance that were were meant to rescue my dad."

"I found no evidence in his mind that he was being controlled or had ulterior motives." J'onn said.

"You can't read everyone's minds." Alex pointed out.

"I can if they are human." J'onn countered.

"But he was there a long time. We don't know what happened to him. What of they have found a way of shielding part of his mind?" Alex asked.

"Has your mother said he has done anything strange?"

"No."

"Have you noticed anything odd?"

"No."

"In that case have a little faith." J'onn said. "At the moment all of this is speculation." He added.

"Sir, Ma'ams, sorry to interrupt, but you are needed." Vasquez said bursting into the office.

"What is it?" J'onn asked.

"Your sister." Vasquez answered looking at Alex. "Mr Olsen just brought her in, she is in a bad way."

"What's wrong?" Alex asked paling as she ran out to where Kara was being carefully placed on a gurney by James.

"She was complaining about the noise and not making it stop then she collapsed." James said watching helpless as Hamilton did a quick examination of Kara.

"Was she ill?" Hamilton asked.

"She was sweating, but it didn't seem to be a fever." James said.

"Any obvious exposure to strange rocks, dust or gas?" Hamilton probed.

"No." James and Winn said.

"Were her powers working?" J'onn asked.

"She said she still had her powers." Winn added running a nervous hand through his hair. "If anything it was like she couldn't control them. At least her hearing. She said she needed to concentrate more."

"No fever, but elevated heart rate." Hamilton commented more to herself than anyone else before signalling her team to wheel Kara away as Alex watched, trying to suppress her own fears.

 _ **-TBC**_

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	2. Chapter 2

"Alex?" Kara croaked as she opened her eyes and saw her sister looking down at her.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Alex asked gently as she brushed a stray hair off Kara's head.

"Better. Weak. What happened?"

"You collapsed and James and Winn brought you here. They said you were complaining about noise."

"It was so loud. I couldn't stop it." Kara said.

"Stop what?" Alex asked confused.

"The sounds." Kara said.

"Can you go back to the start?" J'onn asked from a few feet away.

"I started feeling odd. My head started hurting. I just thought I was tired. Then at work I started hearing conversations I hadn't wanted to. Then I heard more and more. It just wouldn't stop. It hurt so much. My head, the voices. I couldn't filter them out. So much noise."

"This ever happen before?" J'onn asked.

"Not like this. Just after I arrived on Earth I had problems adjusting and I couldn't filter things out. But Kal-El taught me how to do it. Since then it has been second nature."

"But that didn't work today?" J'onn guessed.

"No."

"Any other powers working strangely?" Alex asked.

"I don't know. I don't think so." Kara answered as Alex squeezed her hand. "But they are working now. I can only hear you."

"They may not be." Alex warned. "You are in the Kryptonite room. When you are feeling up to it we can block the Kryptonite and see if you really are better."

"Is that why I feel sick?"

"Probably." Alex said.

"Turn it off. Please. No more Kryptonite." Kara pleaded, suddenly remembering her captivity and torture a few weeks previously.

"You sure?" Alex asked.

"Please." Kara pressed causing J'onn to walk to the emitters.

The second J'onn deactivated the Kryptonite Kara was overwhelmed with sounds. Gripping her head again she whimpered in pain as J'onn quickly increased the Kryptonite levels until Kara was no longer in distress.

With her powers removed her senses dulled and the noises stopped causing Kara to relax.

"Better?" Alex asked.

"Yeah." Kara said her voice trembling. "What's happening to me?"

"I don't know." Alex said gripping Kara's hand. "But we'll figure it out."

"What if we can't?"

"We will." Alex assured her as she watched her sister fall to sleep before she left Kara's side.

-00-

"How is she?" James asked when Alex entered the room he, Lucy and Winn were waiting in.

"Her super hearing is out of control. We have to keep her near Kryptonite in order to stop her being overwhelmed."

"Any idea what is causing this?" Lucy asked.

"We have three theories." J'onn said. "One, she has been exposed to something, like Red Kryptonite. Two, it is an unforeseen consequence of what happened to her here." As he spoke guilt flashed over Lucy's face. "Or three, and this is the worse case, the radiation from the sun that gives her her powers has caused some sort of mutation to her cells that is making her powers unstable."

"But her cousin has never had this problem and he has been here far longer." James pointed out.

"He came as a baby. Kara had already lived for many years without our sun. In the same way her cousin was effected by Myriad and Kara wasn't we can't expect them to always react in the same way." Alex said.

"Is there anything we can do?" Winn asked.

"We need to figure out if she was exposed to something that may have caused this." J'onn said. "We need to rule out environmental factors."

"I'll check out her apartment, see if there is anything she could have been exposed to." Lucy offered.

"I'll check the office." Winn said.

"I'm going to find Clark and go with him to his Fortress, maybe there is something in there that will help us." James said. "Can I see her before I go?"

"Of course, but she is sleeping." Alex warned. "I'm going to talk to her mother's hologram and see if she will be any help."

-00-

"How are you feeling?" Alex asked as she returned to Kara's side an hour later.

"The same."

"It's going to be okay." Alex said stroking Kara's forehead with one hand and holding one of Kara's hands with the other.

"I'm scared." Kara confessed before she winced.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked.

"It's starting again."

"What is?"

"The noises. I can't stop them. And my vision." Kara said suddenly seeing through everything and squeezing her eyes shut to stop it. As the noise level picked up again and pain washed through her she squeezed Alex's hand breaking it in the process.

"Make it stop." Kara whimpered as Alex tried to bite back the scream of pain.

Left with no choice J'onn increased the Kryptonite levels in the room again and nodded for the doctor to sedate Kara. As Kara drifted off to sleep she released her hold on Alex's hand. Biting back the pain Alex withdrew her swollen appendage and looked down at the bruising.

"Go get your hand treated." J'onn ordered.

"I don't want to leave her." Alex said.

"I'll watch Kara. She'll be asleep for a few hours." J'onn said before gently adding. "Kara needs you functioning properly. Go get your hand treated."

-00-

"How is she?" Alex asked when she finally returned to Kara's side.

"Still asleep, but heart rate and blood pressure are back to normal." J'onn said. "How's the hand?"

"Broken." Alex said as she took a seat.

"So it is not just her hearing that is out of control then." J'onn commented.

"It looks that way." Alex agreed.

"If it spreads to her other powers she will be a danger to everyone in this base." J'onn warned.

"How much further can we push the Kryptonite?" Alex questioned.

"The room is already at higher than safe levels." J'onn said.

"So our current solution will end up killing her?" Alex said despondently.

"There may be another option, but I doubt Kara will want it." J'onn said cryptically. "But before we cross that bridge I am going to see Major Lane."

"Has she found something?" Alex asked hopefully.

"If she had I think we would know already." J'onn said sadly. "But she has just returned, so I will go and debrief her. Let me know if she wakes up." He said standing. "And Alex, remember that if Kara loses further control you could get hurt again. I know it's hard, but it will be safer if you keep some distance when she wakes."

-00-

"Director." Lucy greeted as J'onn entered the control room.

"Anything?" J'onn asked.

"No. We found nothing unusual at her apartment. Winn has not found anything at CatCo. We are currently going through all imagery we have for her missions from the last few days in the hope it shows something. But so far nothing unusual is showing up. We are also trying to track her movements for the last few days to see if this was deliberate."

"Sounds like you have the bases covered." J'onn said, grateful Lucy had taken charge of the investigation. "Any news from Olsen?"

"He and Superman are at the Fortress going through the archive there. He said he would contact us if they found anything. He also said Superman had never suffered anything similar."

"I take it there have been no confessions from Maxwell Lord? No admission of Purple Kryptonite?"

"No, wait, is that a thing?" Lucy asked.

"Not that I know of, but I wouldn't put it past Lord." J'onn said.

"If he is involved he has not confessed. I did, however, contact my father." Lucy admitted.

"Why?" J'onn asked curious.

"To find out if it was just Kryptonite he injected her with or whether it was some strange compound that could have caused what is happening now."

"And?"

"He said it was just Kryptonite." Lucy said.

"You believe him?"

"I don't know. I want to, but..." Lucy started not sure how to finish.

"As I said to Alex, have a little faith."

"Even if it is the truth, it still doesn't mean it isn't the cause, but I guess pure Kryptonite is easier to deal with than an unknown compound." She said hopefully.

"There is one person you have left off your list." J'onn said sighing.

"Jeremiah?" Lucy guessed.

"Jeremiah." J'onn agreed.

"Has he seen Kara recently?"

"Not to my knowledge, but I should check." He said sounding defeated. "The Jeremiah Danvers I knew was good and loyal, I hate that we are starting to doubt him."

"Perhaps we should focus on what we do know, not what we fear may be." Lucy said. "I'll keep retracing Kara's steps. I'm sure Alex and Dr Hamilton would appreciate your input with the lab results."

-00-

"Alex?" Kara asked as she started to wake up.

"Hey." Alex smiled. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired, sick."

"That's probably the Kryptonite." Alex said stroking a stray hair away from Kara's eyes. As she did so Kara caught sight of her other hand.

"Your hand? Did I do that?"

"It was an accident." Alex said. "Right now you need to focus on getting better."

"Do you know what's wrong with me?"

"Not yet, but we will." Alex promised.

"I'm scared." Kara confessed.

"I know. But I promise you we will figure this out." Alex said. "Just try to rest."

"Will you hold me?" Kara asked, her eyes swimming with fear and loneliness.

"Of course." Alex said climbing onto the bed and hugging her little sister, ignoring J'onn's earlier warning.

 **-TBC**

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	3. Chapter 3

The next time Kara woke J'onn and Alex were at her side looking down at her with concerned expressions.

"Hey." Alex said gently.

"'Le?" Kara mumbled through a dry mouth.

"How are you feeling?" J'onn asked.

"Sick….Want...want to...be better."

"I know. Just hang in there." Alex said, her eyes watery.

"With the Kryptonite levels this high it is hard to work out what symptoms are caused by the Kryptonite and what is caused by whatever threw your powers off." J'onn said.

"If we don't do something the Kryptonite levels could become deadly." Alex explained fighting back tears as she stroked Kara's cheek. "We have to do something to stop the symptoms getting worse without using Kryptonite. We can only think of one way to do that."

"What?" Kara asked weakly as she lay drained from the Kryptonite.

"To put you in your pod and use it to put you to sleep."

"No." Kara immediately said, trying to sit up. "I can't, please no."

"Kara it is the only way." J'onn said, surprised with the fear in Kara's eyes.

"No, I don't want to." Kara pleaded as she started reliving her final moments on Krypton.

"Kara, you'll be okay." Alex assured her. "It is only until we figure out what's happening."

"No, I'll stay awake. Increase the Kryptonite." Kara continued as she forced herself from her bed, collapsing to her knees as she did so.

"If we do that you could die. The pod is safer." Alex said lunging forward trying to catch Kara.

"No. Please." Kara begged, the tears flowing freely.

"It won't be for long." Alex said as she held onto her sobbing sister. "I'll be right here when we bring you out."

"I don't want to be alone." Kara cried, clinging to Alex. "I don't want to lose everyone. Not again."

"Kara, we're not going anywhere. I promise we'll be here when you wake up. I'll stay with you until you are asleep then I will be right here when you wake up."

Before Kara could respond Dr Hamilton sedated her. For a moment Alex held Kara in her arms before she allowed J'onn to lift her up and carry her to the pod.

When Kara was finally secured and the pod activated J'onn held his breath as Hamilton monitor various screens. Finally she turned to him and said.

"She appears to be stable. I should warn you this may not be enough, especially in the long term."

"I know." J'onn said sadly.

"For now though is the best option." Hamilton said giving him a supportive smile. "My team will continually monitor her. If anything changes I'll let you know."

"Thank you doctor." J'onn said before turning and seeing Alex still on the floor, looking completed defeated as silent tears ran down her face.

"We will fix this." J'onn said, trying to comfort Alex. "But there is nothing we can do right now. We need to approach this fresh so go home and get some sleep. Come back tomorrow and we'll start again."

-00-

"Alex?" Winn asked when he saw her enter the bar. "Where's Kara? Is she okay?"

"No." Alex said reaching the bar and ordering a whiskey.

"Is she still alive?" Winn asked panicking.

"For now." Alex said downing the whiskey and requesting another.

"Have you figured out what's wrong?" Winn asked unwittingly making Alex feel worse.

"No. Still no clue." Alex said finishing her glass and waving the barman down.

"I get that you are upset, but should you be drinking this much?" Winn asked.

"I am going to visit Lord and I think being a little drunk when I do that is going to be better for everyone."

"Lord? Why? You can't go alone." Winn said.

"Yes I can." Alex said downing another drink.

"Does Henshaw know?" Winn asked.

"About Max's possible involvement? Yes." Alex said, carefully answering the question.

"And he is okay with you going after him drunk?" Winn pressed.

"No where near drunk." Alex said downing another drink.

"I really think it would be better if you went home and slept this off." Winn said.

"I don't. I need answers and Kara needs to be fixed." Alex said placing some notes on the counter and standing.

"I could go with you." Winn offered.

"Not a good idea. You are not an Agent. Unlike me you are not trained or qualified."

"Shouldn't you take someone?"

"Not on this mission." Alex said walking off.

-00-

"We may have a problem." General Lane said over his video link with Max.

"Such as?" Max asked.

"It looks like your recent project has had unintended consequences." Lane explained.

"How so? All of the subjects are still here and none of them are showing any adverse changes."

"It is not the test subjects we have a problem with." Lane said. "It turns out Supergirl inadvertently intercepted one of the shipments."

"Has she told anyone what we were transporting?"

"No. I doubt she has any idea what she stumbled across."

"Then what's the problem?" Max asked confused.

"She has subsequently lost control of her powers."

"Lost control how?" Max asked.

"I don't know the details, but they have had to lock her in a Kryptonite room and sedate her."

"Interesting." Max said. "It looks like my compound half works."

"May I remind you, we paid you a considerable sum of money to create a compound to give humans superpowers akin to Superman and Supergirl? All you have done is strengthen Supergirl's powers in an uncontrollable way." Lane said clearly frustrated.

"Which shows the theory is partially correct. I just need to tweak the binding." Max said. "What I need is to see Supergirl and figure out exactly what happened."

"And how exactly do you intend to do that? It is not as if you are trusted, despite your assurances that you would be."

"I assured you I would be distrusted less, not that I would be trusted." Max corrected him. "And if Supergirl is as bad as you say Alex will come to me."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Alex will do anything for her sister. If she believes there is any chance I can help she'll approach me. Plus she'll assume I am behind it."

"How will you convince her otherwise?"

"I have already found the perfect fall guy."

"Who?"

"You of course. I mean you did torture poor Supergirl. Who knows what long term damage you did? Obviously it wasn't your fault, you weren't in control. However what happened, happened."

"You really think you can blame this on Kryptonite?" Lane asked.

"I don't see why not." Max said.

"If you are right and Danvers comes to you, do you plan on curing her?" Lane asked.

"I don't know what is wrong with her, but if I can help it could help secure my place in the DEO. At the very least I can offer to help and get access to their research and more data on Supergirl."

"Sir." One of Max's security men interrupted.

"What is it?"

"Agent Danvers is attempting to gain entry."

"Show her to my study." Max instructed before looking at Lane. "As I said everything is going as planned."

 **-TBC**

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	4. Chapter 4

As Lucy entered the DEO she headed straight to Vasquez and asked.

"Any news on Supergirl?"

"No ma'am, she is the same. The pod seems to be keeping her stable."

"That's good, I guess." Lucy said before asking. "Is Agent Danvers in her lab?"

"No Ma'am, she has not made it in yet today."

"You sure?" Lucy asked concerned.

"Yes Ma'am. I definitely haven't seen her," she said as she typed at her terminal before adding, "and her access code has not been used today."

"Damn it." Lucy muttered.

"Problem?" J'onn asked as he entered the DEO with Eliza and Jeremiah.

"Director, Drs danvers." Lucy greeted, surprised to see the elder pair.

"Has something happened to Kara?" Eliza asked assuming the worse.

"No, the pod solution is working." Lucy assured her.

"Then what's the problem?" J'onn asked.

Lucy glanced towards Eliza and Jeremiah, not wanting them to worry further before confessing. "It's just that Alex hasn't made it to work yet." The comment causing concern to etch itself on J'onn's face.

"Have you tried her place?" J'onn asked.

"I went by there and Kara's on my way in."

"Are you sure she actually left last night?" Jeremiah questioned.

"I took her home myself." J'onn said as he tried ringing Alex, going through to voicemail.

"She could have gone via CatCo to see if the guys found anything?" Lucy suggested.

"Vasquez." J'onn called. "Please take the Danvers to Alex's lab." He then turned to Jeremiah and Eliza and assured them. "I will find Alex." When they were gone J'onn turned back to Lucy who offered.

"You want me to go to CatCo?"

"No I'll go. If Alex has done what I think she has done it is better I deal with it."

"Maxwell Lord?" Lucy guessed.

"Maxwell Lord." J'onn agreed. "In the mean time, I need a favour."

"Anything."

"I need you to keep an eye on Jeremiah. If he is as we hope, he will be a huge asset to finding out what is wrong with Kara, however, until we know for sure keep a watching brief."

"Of course." Lucy agreed.

-00-

"Any news on Kara?" Cat asked as Winn entered her office.

"Nothing good."

"Do they know what's wrong with her?"

"No. They don't have any idea, but she's getting worse." Winn said clearly concerned. "Alex looked completely defeated when I saw her last night."

"Can her cousin help?"

"We don't know. I mean he's trying, but nothing like this has happened to him. But James is with him now and they are looking through his archives to see if there is anything that can be used. I mean we are all going through everything, but there is a lot of information in the archives, all the archives and-"

"You're rambling." Cat said, immediately silencing him before he quietly mumbled.

"Sorry."

"So no one knows anything?" Cat asked.

"No."

"Someone must have a theory or a suspicion." Cat pressed.

"Alex thinks Maxwell Lord maybe involved." Winn gave up.

"I wouldn't put it past him." Cat said. "But I assume there is no proof."

"Nothing."

"In that case perhaps we should get the latest update from Agent Mulder." Cat suggested noticing Henshaw was marching towards her office.

"What's happened?" Winn asked fearing the worse as J'onn walked through the door.

"Alex is missing."

"Since when?"

"Last night. I was hoping she was here."

"No, but you probably want to talk to Lord." Winn said.

"Why?"

"She was going to visit him last night."

"Alone? And you knew and didn't try to stop her?"

"I tried." Winn said. "But she is like a trained killer and I'm just the IT guy. Besides when it comes to Kara there is no stopping Alex. She also kind of implied that you knew."

"I didn't." J'onn said.

"Would you like me to contact Max?" Cat offered.

"No, I'll go." J'onn said glaring at Winn before he left.

-00-

"You son of a bitch." Alex snarled at Lord as she woke up, hands tied in front of her, and found him starring at her. "I swear I am going to kill you."

"You are really holding me responsible for you coming to my house and launching a drunken tirade before collapsing unconscious on my couch?" Max asked amused as Alex struggled to sit up.

"I didn't collapse. You knocked me out." Alex said trying to free her hands from the cable ties that were securing them.

"That wasn't me. It was my security guard who saw a crazy lady attack me and chose to do his job."

"He tasered me."

"For his protection, you had punched him." Max said.

"And he punched me." Alex said.

"Technically, you struck first." Max countered.

"And going all Fifty Shades on me?" She asked nodding at her cable tied wrists.

"That's a reference I didn't expect to hear from you. Did Kara make you watch it? But in answer to your question it was for my protection." Max smiled. "You're a dangerous woman Danvers. And I assumed your mood would not be any better when you woke up. So why did you charge in here?"

"I need to know what did you do to her?"

"Who?"

"Kara."

"Nothing. Well not intentionally anyway." Max smiled as he placed a glass of water and bottle of pills in front of Alex. "For the hangover, and the head, you took a nasty bump when you fell, and of course for the hand, what happened?" He asked.

"It was an accident." Alex said before moving her wrists indicating that Max would need to release her.

"You're a clever girl, you'll figure it out." He said unsympathetically. "So what exactly has happened to your sister? And why do you assume I am behind it?"

"Because you have admitted to hating her and have a track record of trying to kill her."

"So do hundreds of escaped prisoners from Fort Rozz." Max pointed out. "And compared to her family I'm quite harmless."

"Red Kryptonite." Alex said.

"A minor oversight. And it wasn't deliberate."

"Bizzaro?"

"A failure."

"Have you been doing any Kryptonite experiments?" Alex asked.

"Of course. I take human survival seriously."

"Has Kara been exposed to any of them?"

"How should I know? I have not set any traps if that is what you mean. And unless she has broken into my labs I don't see how she would have been." He then sighed and took out a knife. "I understand that you and your sister are close and I have seen first hand how protective you are of her, which is why you are here now. But I had nothing to do with what has happened, whatever it is. I can't give you the answers you are looking for, but because I care about you I will try to help. Tell me what has happened and I will try to help with a solution."

When Alex reluctantly nodded Max cut the cable tie and sat down opposite her.

-00-

"Alex!" Eliza called as her eldest walked into her lab at the DEO.

"Mom? What are you doing here?" Alex asked confused by her presence. Fearing the worse she asked. "Kara?"

"She's the same." Eliza assured her before explaining. "J'onn said Kara was ill and then we got here and you were missing. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't look it." Jeremiah pointed out as he saw her hand in a cast and her face was bruised.

"Dad?" Alex asked suddenly seeing her father.

"What happened?" Jeremiah asked.

"It's nothing."

"It doesn't look like nothing." He said arms crossed across his chest before repeating. "What happened?"

"We think Kara has been exposed to a type of Kryptonite, which has amplified her powers."

"I meant to you. J'onn has already briefed us on Kara. What happened to you?" Jeremiah pressed.

"Something I would like to know too." J'onn said approaching the trio.

"It's nothing." Alex said, not needing telepathic abilities to know that J'onn was angry.

"Really? Because I was told you got drunk and marched off to see Lord." J'onn said.

"That is accurate." Alex confessed avoiding eye contact with everyone, whilst feeling Eliza's disapproving stare on the back of her head.

"He said you attempted to break in." J'onn pressed.

"No, I was shown to his study." Alex said.

"Did he do that?" J'onn asked pointing to the bruises on Alex's face.

"Not exactly." Alex said. "Technically it was the security guard."

"What did you do?" Eliza asked.

"Nothing." Alex said.

"Go get Hamilton to check on your injuries."

"I'm fine."

"That was not a suggestion." J'onn replied.

"I don't have time to waste seeing Hamilton." Alex countered.

"You should have thought about that before you went in without back up. If Hamilton clears you meet us back here."

"But-"

"Go." J'onn said causing Alex to storm out of the lab.

"Suddenly the regret of missing the rebellious teenage years is dwindling slightly." Jeremiah commented.

 **-TBC**

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	5. Chapter 5

When Alex returned to her lab having being cleared by Hamilton she found her parents and J'onn sat round a computer screen.

"Anything?" She asked.

"Have you been cleared?" J'onn immediately countered.

"Yes." Alex said avoiding eye contact with all three occupants. When a silence hung in the air she finally looked at J'onn and added. "Seriously, I have been cleared for lab duty."

"I have been showing your parents your data, but perhaps you should summarise what we know." J'onn finally said, accepting Alex could be in the lab.

"It looks like her cells are being supercharged." Alex started to explain. "To start with we could control the effects by exposing her to Kryptonite, but eventually even that didn't stop it."

"So Kryptonite had no effect on her at that point?" Jeremiah asked.

"Not exactly, it made her really weak and ill, but didn't stop her powers." Alex explained. "At the moment I have no idea what would cause that on top of the other effects."

"You said she had been tortured by injecting her with Kryptonite?" Jeremiah asked.

"Yes." J'onn said.

"Could that have built up some sort of immunity to Kryptonite?" He asked.

"She was so weak in the room I don't think so." Alex said. "But I guess it is possible her cell's reaction to Kryptonite was altered by that exposure. I never even thought about testing it." She added dejectedly, feeling like she had kept failing Kara.

"But it was only her hearing that was uncontrollable?" Eliza asked looking up from the notes she was reading.

"No." Alex said glancing at her hand. "Hearing was the first one and the most obvious but vision and strength were also effected."

"But not freeze breath, flying or heat vision?" Eliza asked.

"Not when we put her in the pod." Alex said still feeling guilty over their actions. "It is possible they would also have been affected with time."

"Hearing and vision were always the two she struggled most to control. The glasses hid any effects on her vision, but there was no way for her to block her hearing." Eliza commented. "If you divide her powers into two, passive and active, her vision and hearing being passive, the flying, freeze breath and heat vision being active."

"And strength?" Jeremiah asked.

"I'm not sure how to classify that one. She always needs to concentrate on controlling it so maybe passive?"

"Maybe you are onto something. We've been looking at this thinking it is a cellular issue, like her cells have become supercharged for some reason. But what if it is at the brain level?" Alex asked. "Red Kryptonite effected her brain chemistry enough to get rid of her inhibitions and change her personality, so maybe she has been exposed to something that stops her signalling her cells."

"Red Kryptonite?" Jeremiah asked.

"A synthetic form of Kryptonite that turned Kara to the dark side." Alex said.

"But you reversed that?" Eliza asked.

"We did, once we knew what she had been exposed to."

"So it is possible she was exposed to something that caused her to lose control? And if we figure out what we should be able to reverse it." Eliza said hopefully.

"That's a big if." Alex said. "There is no evidence that she was exposed to something."

"What's wrong?" J'onn asked noticing Jeremiah's frown.

"They wanted me to work on Kryptonite at Cadmus. Not just to create more, but variations of it, and now Kara's powers have become unstable." Jeremiah said.

"You think this is a result of Cadmus research?" J'onn guessed.

"Big coincidence if it isn't." Jeremiah said, arms folded across his chest.

"What can you tell us about the research?" J'onn asked.

"Not much, I refused to get involved. But I do know they tried one type that would change humans, give them powers."

"We have already come across something similar, although not using Kryptonite. A project dubbed Bizarro. The subject was injected with Kara's DNA and she developed Kara's powers, well reverse of them. She was like a mirror image. Albeit in an unstable way. Kryptonite actually gave her strength."

"How did you capture her?"

"We developed a synthetic mirror like Kryptonite by reversing the ionic charge. That allowed us to take her down."

"Did you try using that Kryptonite on Kara after she lost control?" Eliza asked.

"No. I never even considered it." Alex said, mentally ticking off another failure.

"Randomly exposing your sister to Kryptonite is not the best approach." J'onn said trying to alleviate some of Alex's guilt. "But first things first, we need to figure out if this is at the brain level or the cellular level. Alex, I'll leave you in charge of that. Jeremiah, it would be useful to learn everything you know about that Cadmus research."

-00-

"Mom?" Alex asked when Eliza entered her lab a few hours later. "Where's dad?"

"He's with J'onn looking through the Cadmus archives, seeing if they can figure out what is causing this."

"Have you come for an update?"

"Actually I was wondering how you are doing." Eliza said.

"I'm not the one trapped in a pod." Alex pointed out.

"What happened isn't your fault."

"Isn't it? I am meant to protect her."

"You can't control everything." Eliza warned.

"She looked so scared, so hurt when we told her about putting her in the pod. I have never seen her so frightened, she believed she would never see any of us again."

"She will see us again and I know you will find a cure."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because you are Alex Danvers and I know you would do anything for Kara." Eliza smiled. "Plus I have been learning that you and Kara regularly go through things like this, yet you always come out on top." She added drawing Alex in for a hug. When Alex finally pulled away Eliza said. "But it is important you get enough rest. You won't do Kara any good if you collapse. So how about we go get some food."

"I'm not very hungry." Alex said.

"You need to eat." Eliza said gently.

"I have been. Plates of food keep magically appearing and I eat some of it." Alex said pointing at a table in the corner that had a plate with a half eaten sandwich.

"You have a good team here." Eliza smiled.

"Yeah, I do." Alex replied.

"If you don't want to eat. How about a cup of coffee?"

"Okay, as long as it is not decaff." Alex agreed knowing her mother wouldn't stop until Alex had agreed to a break.

"I wouldn't dream of it." Eliza smiled handing Alex a bag of freshly ground beans. Taking the bag Alex walked over to her coffee maker and commented.

"I feel like I am missing something."

"Which is why you need a break. Fifteen minutes thinking about something else might set you on the right track."

"Maybe. So what do you want to talk about?" Alex asked.

"Your choice." Eliza smiled.

"Okay. How are things going with dad?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well you thought he was dead for years. You've been living by yourself for the last few years and now he is back and you are living together. I kind of assumed there would be an adjustment period."

"This is what you want to talk about during your rest period?" Eliza asked both surprised and uncomfortable at the direction the conversation had taken.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." Alex said turning her attention back on the coffee that was dripping into the pot.

"It's not that." Eliza said, not really wanting to discuss it, but not wanting to shut Alex out either. "It's just that I want you to focus on you. You have enough to worry about right now without anything else."

"I'm not Kara." Alex pointed out. "I didn't expect it to just go back to how it was."

"Your father and I will be fine. It is just going to take some time to get there. As you said he's been gone a long time."

"But you are okay?" Alex checked as she handed her mother a mug of coffee.

"I'm fine. A little confused to how me coming in to make sure you were okay has resulted in you checking up on me." Eliza smiled.

"Sorry to interrupt ma'ams." Vasquez said knocking on the door. "But you have a visitor."

"Who?" Alex asked looking up.

"Maxwell Lord. He said he has information that may be useful."

"Of course he does." Alex said standing. "Where is he?"

"Lab five."

-00-

"What do you want Max?" Alex asked marching into the lab.

"To help."

"You didn't this morning."

"I never said that." Max protested. "But I admit that my focus this morning was more on you not hurting me rather than me helping your sister."

"Seeing I am not restrained and now I have a side arm, I'm not sure I see why your focus has changed." Alex said.

"Alex, I know we have had issues, but I would have hoped by now that you have accepted that I can be useful."

"It is your motives I am questioning."

"I admit that with our past I may have deserved that." Max smiled.

"How magnanimous." Alex commented dryly.

"I am trying to help." Max said holding his hands up defensively. "From what you said this morning your sister is either suffering some sort of cell mutation or some sort of brain malfunction. Both of which I have experience with. I am offering you my help."

"I didn't say brain malfunction this morning." Alex pointed out.

"True, but it is logical to assume it is a possible cause. And you did bring up Red Kryptonite." Max pointed out. "I can help, use me."

-00-

"You okay?" Eliza questioned as she stepped up to Jeremiah who was watching Alex and Max through a window.

"Yeah, I was just getting a feeling of deja vu."

"From your time at Cadmus?" Eliza asked.

"No, from when Alex was in 6th Grade and Tommy Robinson made the mistake of asking her out on a date. I almost felt sorry for him as Alex ripped him to shreds."

"I wouldn't waste sympathy on Maxwell Lord." Eliza commented.

"Why? Has he hurt Alex?"

"Not that I know of, but Kara doesn't like him."

"But Kara likes everyone." Jeremiah pointed out.

"Precisely."

 **-TBC**

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	6. Chapter 6

"You said the effects weren't steady?" Max asked after hours of staring at data.

"Yeah. After she was brought in the Kryptonite controlled it and she was okay, then suddenly she wasn't until we increased the levels again. It seemed to be step changes rather than a power law or exponential growth." Alex said wearily, running a hand through her hair.

"Maybe not. Could it have been more like a dam breaking?" Max asked. The question causing Alex to pause before answering.

"Maybe. Why? What are you thinking?"

"Uncontrollable production of cAMP molecules." Max stated.

"Keep talking." Alex said as her brain started to process the idea.

"Her powers go crazy and you subject her to Kryptonite which seems to stop the problem?" Max asked.

"Yes."

"What if it didn't stop, just slowed down the production of the cAMP molecules to a level that could be controlled by the normal enzymes? You are the expert on this, but my guess would be Kryptonite inhibits the production of cAMP molecules. Only, for some reason her cells have gone into overdrive and the Kryptonite wasn't inhibiting the production enough. At some point enough cAMP molecules were produced to turn on her powers."

"Which means either her cell receptors have gone into overdrive or she is not producing enough of the phosphodiesterase enzyme to counteract the molecule production?" Alex said, starting to feel awake and hopeful.

"Yes." Max said.

"But which one?" Jeremiah asked.

"My money would be on the later because only her passive powers were effected." Alex said.

"So we need to look at her cells and see what her levels of cAMP molecules is and was as well as enzyme levels." Max said before casually adding. "Having a sample of her cousin's cells as a comparison would be helpful."

"We have plenty of samples from Kara." Alex said not trusting his motives. "I'll go grab some from the med lab."

"I'll come with you." Jeremiah offered. When they were out of the lab he asked. "You doing okay? All things considered."

"I'm okay." Alex said. "Apart from being worried, frustrated and angry."

"We'll figure this out." Jeremiah said.

"I hope so." Alex said almost sounding defeated, causing Jeremiah to put a hand on her shoulder forcing her to come to a stop.

"Alex, from what I can see you are an amazing scientist. Have some faith in yourself. If you want I can give you the same pep talk I gave you before your 5th Grade science fair. I mean you did ace that competition so I must have said something right." The comment earned a small smile from Alex who said.

"Thank you for having faith in me."

"It's not just me. It's obvious everyone here does. Never forget how proud I am of you. And I know your mother may be a little hard on you, but she is also so proud of you." He smiled. "Let's get those samples."

-00-

"How's it going?" Lucy asked as she entered the lab the following day, surprised that the four sleep deprived occupants were so active.

"Good." Alex said staring through a microscope.

"You've found something?"

"Possibly." J'onn said. "But we could use your help a minute."

"Sure, what do you need?"

"We need to bounce an idea off you."

"What type of an idea?" Lucy asked curious.

"About Kara." Alex said.

"You want to bounce your theory off me?" Lucy questioned.

"Yeah."

"But I'm not a scientist." Lucy said.

"Trust me, we know." Lord said. "Your complete lack of knowledge makes you ideal."

"What Max is trying to say," Alex said. "Is we have been staring at this non-stop for hours and think we have something, but we need someone independent and not sleep deprived to make sure there are no holes in the logic."

"We've all checked the science." J'onn added. "And we are convinced it makes sense, but if we are right, synthesising a compound will take hours to days. We don't want to do that and then find out we missed something and our theory was wrong. So we could really do with a fresh pair of eyes, preferably a pair that has managed to sleep in the last couple of days."

"Okay." Lucy agreed, not entirely sure what she was bringing to the party.

"Alex." J'onn said prompting her to start.

"Kara's cells react to stimuli like everyone else. However, with Kara, exposure to radiation from our sun causes certain proteins to initiate a physiological response." Alex said.

"And that gives her powers?" Lucy asked.

"For her passive powers, like hearing, vision and strength, yes. For her active powers, flying, freeze breath and heat vision it is only the first step. For those ones when Kara wants to use the powers the brain sends a signal to the cells that triggers a second protein, which launches biochemical reactions." She paused to make sure Lucy was following her before adding. "For both the passive and active powers once the response has been initiated the cells syntheses small molecules, or secondary messengers, these start a cascade of signals within the cell, that generates a magnified signal that gives her powers. Depending on the super power in question it can take longer or more energy to generate a strong enough signal in all the cells to have a noticeable effect."

"So, assuming her cells are charged, her passive powers are always on and there is a constant generation of a signal in her cells, but for her active ones her brain sends a signal that is magnified in each cell? But regardless of active or passive it is the strong signal in the cells that gives her powers?" Lucy asked.

"Highly simplistically, yes." Max agreed.

"So how does the signal stop?" Lucy asked.

"By the brain sending another signal that causes the generation of an enzyme that degrades the first signal."

"And you believe her brain isn't sending that signal?" Lucy guessed.

"No we believe the signal is being sent but her cells aren't producing the enzyme so the first signal is always stuck on." Alex said.

"Because?" Lucy asked.

"Firstly, all the brain scans appeared normal. Secondly, when Kara first stared presenting we could stop the effects, temporarily, with Kryptonite. Kryptonite inhibits the production of the molecules, but doesn't stop it completely, especially at the levels she was exposed to. But soon the Kryptonite didn't stop her powers, implying that the molecules had been produced and had multiplied to such a level they gave her powers again. But only certain powers were effected. Hearing and vision are powers that are always on. Normally a signal is sent from the brain that produces the enzyme that then degrades the molecules and cuts down the strength to the required level, whereas, heat vision, freeze breath, flying, are active powers. She needs to send a signal to activate them and another to deactivate them."

"So because she didn't lose control of the heat vision, freeze breath and flying you think she wasn't randomly sending uncontrollable signals trying to activate the powers? Whereas, the passive powers always have the molecules produced and are countered by the production of the enzyme. And because her passive powers were the ones spiralling out of control she wasn't producing the enzyme? So either the cell receptors are broken or the cells can't produce the enzyme."

"That's the theory." Alex said, waiting for Lucy to pick apart the logic.

"Assuming you are right, do you have a solution?" Lucy asked. "Don't we need to find what she was exposed to in order to reverse it?"

"Maybe not." Alex said. "It is possible she was not exposed to anything and her cells have mutated. Either from Kryptonite exposure or exposure to the Earth. But in a way it doesn't matter all we need to do is get her cells to produce the enzyme through the introduction of the correct protein phosphatases, then at least we can control the situation."

"And you have a way of doing this?"

"Not exactly, not yet, but if you can't find a hole in any of what I just said we can synthase a solution."

"Most of what you said went over my head, but it sounded plausible." Lucy said. "But isn't there a simpler solution?"

"Such as?"

"Can't you drain her cells? Can't you force her to undergo, what does her cousin call it? Solar Flare?"

"That is only a temporary effect." Alex said. "And we still don't fully understand how the cells become so drained. I mean during Myriad she pushed herself harder than ever before, but was fine. Whereas after fighting Red Tornado she lost her powers."

"Ma'ams, Sirs. I have something." Vasquez said entering the lab.

"What is it?" J'onn asked.

"I may have discovered proof that Supergirl was exposed to something." She paused and let everyone stand round her as she started a video playing on her tablet. "This video shows thermal imagery of Supergirl a week ago."

"Okay." J'onn said not noticing anything out of the ordinary.

"This one is from six days ago."

"Looks pretty identical." Alex commented.

"Yes Ma'am." Vasquez agreed. "Until we get to this imagery from five days ago."

Noticing Supergirl's thermal signature was much stronger Max asked. "Couldn't that just be due to a difference in sensor calibration?"

"No." Vasquez said firmly before turning back to J'onn and explaining, as she loaded up more videos. "All subsequent images have the same increased thermal profile."

"That makes sense." Lucy said causing Max to scoff and ask.

"Why?"

"Well, if you are right and her cells are constantly transmitting an increasing signal, that isn't being dampened by the whatever enzyme, that should increase her body energy." She said before looking at Alex and asking. "Right?"

"Right." Alex smiled.

"Good work Vasquez." J'onn commented.

"I'm not done yet." She went on. "The first time Supergirl showed a difference in thermal signature was when she was attending a traffic collision. Having helped clear up a dropped cargo her signature showed a subtle change. It is not as strong as later, but it is increased."

"What was the cargo?"

"I don't know, yet. The truck is registered to FleetFast Holdings. They seem legitimate, but I am still checking."

"Does this have anything to do with you?" Alex asked rounding on Max.

"This is getting tiresome." Max stated, sounding annoyed.

"That's not a no." Lucy pointed out.

"When I accidentally exposed Supergirl to Red Kryptonite I handed myself in and helped find a solution." Max said. "I even confessed to creating Bizzaro. So why do you think, if I was behind it, I wouldn't have confessed to what is happening now?"

"Because a confession wouldn't suit your plan." Alex said.

"And what plan is that?"

"I haven't figured it out yet, but I will." Alex said.

"YA lyublyu, kogda ty mne ugrozhat." Max said smiling as Alex glared at him.

"idti prygat." Alex countered.

"This isn't getting us anywhere." Jeremiah said moving to Alex's side. "Perhaps we should focus on repairing Kara's cells first and who is responsible later."

"I'm going to investigate FleetFast Holdings." J'onn said. "Lucy, I'd appreciate your company."

"Of course."

"Alex, in case this doesn't lead to anything tangible, do you have enough to generate a compound that will lead to the cells generating the enzyme?"

"I hope so." Alex said.

"Good. If Lord gets in the way feel free to remove him." J'onn said before leaving the lab.

 **-TBC**

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey." J'onn said returning to the lab where Alex was staring at her computer.

"Hey, you find anything?" She asked, the weariness evident in her voice.

"Yes and no. FastFleet Holdings were carrying a shipment on behalf of company called Milton Enterprises. They shipped it from Paxton, Alaska to a warehouse in National City. The manifest stated it was cleaning fluid."

"Anyway to verify that?" Alex asked.

"No. The warehouse it was picked up from and delivered to are both rented to Milton Enterprises. Both are now empty. Milton Enterprises doesn't exist and the shipment has disappeared from the warehouse."

"CCTV footage from the access roads?"

"None. The one in National City had a camera which stopped working a day before the shipment arrived."

"Can you follow the money trail?"

"Cash payment for the haulage." J'onn said. "And they still haven't paid any rent for the warehouses. The deposits were cash payments."

"So another dead end." Alex said dejectedly.

"For now. But we will figure this out. The fact Milton Enterprises doesn't exist tells us a lot." J'onn pointed out.

"If there was something in that shipment, what do you think they were trying to make?" Alex asked.

"I don't know, but I doubt they just randomly stumbled on something that effected your sister." J'onn said.

"Dad mentioned at Cadmus they were trying to modify Kryptonite to give humans powers. That would involve the infected human cells working in a similar way to Kara's. Do you think that she stumbled on something that was meant to give humans powers?"

"Maybe, but then why were the others at the scene effected?"

"You sure they weren't?" Alex asked.

"Positive. Lucy has spent the last few hours locating everyone who was there. She explained there was a potential Foot and Mouth outbreak in the area and they needed to be screened. All the tests came back normal."

"Could it have been unfinished?" Alex asked.

"Maybe, and that would explain why Lord was so keen to help. If he is involved and if there is a problem with it, the data from your sister could be invaluable. Speaking of Lord, where is he?"

"Holding cell three."

"What happened?" J'onn asked immediately concerned.

"Nothing. He wanted to sleep so we put him in his cell. I figured he would be comfortable in it after all the time he spent there."

"How did he take it?"

"At the time he was too tired to care. When he wakes up and discovers he is locked in, who knows."

"You think we can trust him?"

"No. I still don't know if he was involved, but I just feel he is getting as much out of this arrangement as we are." Alex said.

"The most important thing right now is getting your sister back to normal. Hopefully your theory will be right and we won't need his help anymore." J'onn said.

"Hopefully." Alex agreed.

"I assume you haven't locked your parents away as well?" J'onn asked.

"No, but that's not a bad trick for next Thanksgiving." Alex mused before explaining. "We put them in the guest quarters."

"We don't have guest quarters." J'onn pointed out.

"We do now. What we, well you, don't have anymore, is an office." She added looking slightly sheepish.

"I'm sure they need it more that I do." J'onn smiled. "How is your work going?"

"I have developed a compound that looks like it will restart the enzyme generation. I am just running some tests on it now to make sure it keeps active. For whatever reason it looks like Kara's receptors just didn't activate. The compound looks like it fixes it, but there is always the risk it is only a short term solution."

"How long until the tests are done?" J'onn asked.

"Four hours, give or take."

"Then go get some sleep."

"I'm fine." Alex said dismissing him.

"No, you're not." J'onn pointed out. "Get some rest. If you prefer I can get Hamilton to sedate you, or just get your mother down here."

"Your threatening me with my mum?" Alex asked.

"I am." J'onn said smiling softly. "I'm serious Alex, get some rest."

-00-

A few hours later J'onn, Jeremiah, Eliza and Alex were crowding round a workbench in the lab to review results. Alex was the first to look through the microscope before straightening and nervously chewed her lip as the others reviewed the evidence.

"It worked." Eliza said staring through the microscope moments before Jeremiah did the same.

"Nice work." He said looking up smiling at Alex.

"We still don't know if it will work on Kara." Alex warned.

"No reason to think it won't." Jeremiah said. "And we won't know until we try."

"We'll be right there with you." Eliza said understanding the burden Alex was feeling.

"Actually, I think it would be best if it was just Alex and I in there." J'onn said. "If this doesn't work, Kara's hearing will still be overwhelming. The fewer of us in the room the better. You are of course welcome to wait in the viewing area and the second she is okay come in."

"That's fine." Jeremiah said before asking Alex. "You sure you want to test this on Kara now? You could get a little more rest first."

"I'm fine. Kara has been in there too long as it is." Alex said picking up a syringe with the compound. "I'm ready now." With that she walked past her parents to the Kryptonite room where Kara's pod was.

She waited for J'onn to shut the door then opened the pod. As it opened she immediately injected Kara with the compound she had generated and then stepped back and waited. For a long minute nothing happened and Alex felt the dread build in her stomach.

"Relax, it can take a few minutes to wake up from being sedated in the pod." J'onn said trying to sound calmer than he felt.

When Alex saw Kara's eyes finally began to flutter she stepped up to the pod once again, feeling hope and worry wash over her.

"Kara?" Alex said gently as her sister started to open her eyes.

"Alex? How long?"

"A few days." Alex smiled.

"What happened?" Kara asked noting Alex's bruised face.

"We figured out a cure." Alex said deliberately misinterpreting the question.

"I meant to you."

"We can discuss that later. First let's make sure you are okay." Alex said.

"Feel dizzy." Kara confessed.

"We have the Kryptonite levels set to high, just in case. You ready to turn them down?" Alex asked. Seeing Kara nod Alex looked to J'onn who adjusted the controls.

"How are you feeling?" Alex asked as the Kryptonite levels dropped.

"Okay I think." Kara said.

"Any sensitivity?" Alex questioned. For a moment Kara shut her eyes and then shook her head. Taking it as a good sign J'onn reduced the Kryptonite levels to zero and waited.

"You doing okay?" Alex asked.

"I think so." Kara replied as she tried to get up. But as she climbed out from the pod she suddenly felt dizzy and was only saved from falling to the ground by J'onn's arms.

"Easy." He warned. "You have been subjected to Kryptonite for a long time. Let's get you under the lamps and build up your strength again."

"I'm okay." Kara said giving herself a moment to steady herself. Opening her eyes again she looked at Alex, whose eyes were swirling with worry. In response Kara stepped away from J'onn and threw her arms round Alex as tightly hugged her.

"I missed you." Alex said hugging Kara back, ignoring the pain in her ribs. "I was so worried about you. But J'onn is right we need to get you under the lamps."

Reluctantly pulling away Kara looked at Alex's hand and started to remember what had happened.

"Did I do that?"

"It's nothing." Alex said.

"That's not what I asked." Kara pointed out.

"It will heal."

"We have this conversation too much. I'm sorry." Kara said sadly.

"It wasn't your fault." Alex said.

"Kara!" Eliza exclaimed as she entered the room.

"Eliza?" Kara asked confused.

"What are you doing out of bed? Alex she needs to rest."

"We were just going to move her to the solar emitter bed." J'onn said, but as Kara unsteadily moved over to Eliza and hugged her he added. "Assuming Kara ever does what she is told."

"What are you doing here?" Kara asked ignoring J'onn.

"Where else would we be?" Eliza asked as she held Kara.

"We?" Kara asked confused before she saw Jeremiah enter the lab.

-00-

"Lord." Jeremiah said as he approached Max who was still sat in his cell an hour later.

"There's no need to thank me." Max said.

"Thank you? For what?" Jeremiah asked confused.

"Saving Kara."

"That was down to Alex, not you." Jeremiah pointed out.

"Is there something in the water in Midvale that makes you all ungrateful?"

"I am very grateful." Jeremiah said. "I am grateful to have two wonderful daughters and I am grateful to get a second chance with them. What I can never be grateful for are people who try to manipulate the situation for personal gain. I don't know if you were involved in what happened to Kara, but if you were Alex and J'onn will find out and there will be no place on Earth where you will be safe."

"Personally, I think you are over compensating." Max smiled. "The only one of us with a proven link to Cadmus is you. And your daughter's powers were working just fine until you were 'freed'." Max said using air quotes. "I am not the enemy, but you, you I am not so sure about. And you should know Alex isn't sure either. I can see it in her eyes. Normally they're so cold and decisive, but round you there's doubt."

"I wouldn't expect anything less. Alex is a genius." Jeremiah said. "And I fully expect her to question where I have been, what happened to me and whose side I'm on. I know I will have to earn her trust. But that's okay because I know I have nothing to hide."

"I admire your confidence." Max smiled. "But out of interest is this where you tell me to stay away from your daughter."

"I have every confidence that Alex can take care of herself. Besides, right now you're locked up so no threat to anyone." Jeremiah said. "But just so we're clear incase someone remembers to let you out, stay away from my daughters."

-00-

"You should stay under the emitters for longer." Alex said as Kara pressed the release button and sat up.

"I'm fine and uncomfortable. I just want to go home."

"You can, soon. Just a few more tests to run." Alex said moving to stand in front of Kara and squeezing her hand. She then paused before asking. "So do you want to talk about it?"

"It?" Kara asked thinking of three different things Alex could be referring to, none of which she wanted to talk about.

"Your phobia of entering your pod."

"It just brought up some painful memories." Kara said sadly.

"You were terrified." Alex pointed out guiltily.

"I remembered being put in it on Krypton, knowing I was losing everything. That I would never see the people I loved again. When you said I had to go in there I thought I was going to lose everyone I cared about all over again."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Alex said hugging her.

"You saved me." Kara said pulling away from Alex and smiling at her. "Thank you."

"I always have your back." Alex reminded her as the door opened and Eliza walked in.

"How are you feeling sweetie?" She asked.

"Hungry and bored. But mainly hungry." Kara said drawing smiles from both Eliza and Alex.

-00-

"Major Lane." Max said as Lucy entered the room he was in and opened the cell. "It is about time someone remembered I was in here."

"I apologise, it was a minor oversight." Lucy said, not trying to sound sincere. "But we have been concentrating on Kara. I am guessing you remember you can not speak about anything you have seen, heard or done here?" She added avoiding small talk.

"I am here so much you may as well just give me full access so we don't waste time with these briefs."

"Or not."

"No need to sound quite so disdainful." Max replied. "I'm not the enemy."

"Really?" Lucy asked suspiciously.

"Do you all have to swear allegiance to the Maxwell Lord Hate club to work here?"

"The only requirements to work here are hard working, intelligence and common sense. If people with those qualities all reach the same conclusion that implies something doesn't it?" Lucy said as she passed him a form to sign. Smiling he signed the document and handed it back.

"And what does it imply when your pet alien keeps losing control?" Max asked as Lucy led him from the room. "As I have said all along, she is dangerous. Whatever happened to her is proof she is unstable."

"What happened is not her fault." Lucy said.

"I am not trying to assign blame." Max said. "I am merely pointing out that she lost control, again."

"I seem to remember you were responsible for the first time." Lucy reminded him.

"That was an accident. But it does prove my point. Supergirl can not be controlled. She is not an asset you can rely on or trust. She may have the purest intentions in the galaxy, but if she can't keep control those intentions stand for nothing. What happens next time? You really want to be responsible for someone dying?"

"If you are that concerned stop playing with Kryptonite." Lucy said.

-00-

"How are you feeling?" Lucy asked when she entered Kara's room having escorted Max off the base.

"Normal. Ready to go."

"You sure? You don't seem your normal self." Lucy said concerned with how upset Kara was looking.

"Just tired, I guess."

"Make sure you get some rest." Lucy replied before asking. "So are all your powers working normally now?"

"Seem to be."

"So, if you wanted to, you could, I don't know, heat my coffee?"

"Yeah."

"Or listen to private conversations on the other side of the wall? Like between Maxwell Lord and me?"

"I didn't know it was private. I was just bored."

"But you heard what he said?" Lucy guessed. When Kara nodded Lucy added. "Kara, don't listen to him. You are not a weapon you are a person. If anyone is to blame it is the person who created the compound and my money is on Maxwell Lord."

"Everything okay?" Alex asked entering the room and immediately picking up on Kara's less than cheerful persona.

"It will be." Lucy said. "But you need to take Kara home. She needs a real bed and knowing Kara ice cream and pizza."

-00-

"What's wrong?" Alex asked as she and Kara walked to her car at the DEO.

"What happens if I'm not fixed? What happens if it happens again?" Kara asked.

"Right now you are safe, everything is working fine." Alex said.

"What if I can't control my powers any more?"

"You are controlling your hearing and vision right now." Alex pointed out.

"I'm scared." Kara confessed.

"I know, but you need to trust me. You are okay." Alex said.

"I hurt you." Kara said sadly.

"That wasn't your fault." Alex said, but on seeing how doubtful Kara was looking she added. "But if you want to make up for what happened to me I have a way."

"Really? What?"

"Fly me home."

"What?"

"Fly me home. I have not really flown with you since you took me up when we were kids and I remember that being amazing. So please I really want to fly."

"What if I lose control?"

"You won't."

"What if I hold you too tightly?"

"You won't. Now quit stalling."

"What -"

"Kara I trust you and I want you to fly me home."

"I don't have my suit."

"Spare in my car. And I know it will take you like two seconds to change. Chop chop."

"You sound like you are channelling your inner Cat Grant."

"Yeah well, she seems to know how to make you follow orders. Go change."

A few seconds later Kara was standing in front of Alex, dressed as Supergirl, looking nervous.

"Kara, you'll be fine." Alex said causing Kara to reluctantly wrap her arms round her sister before taking to the skies.

As they flew towards the city Kara nervously asked.

"You okay?"

"No. I am great. This is so much better than I remember it." Alex said.

 **-TBC**

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks to SpencerFan for the idea with the last scene. Thanks for reading and reviewing, final chapter up tomorrow.


	8. Chapter 8

"Kara?" Cat asked surprised as she looked up from her desk and saw her former assistant hovering in front of her.

"Good morning Ms Grant. Here's your latte." She said placing the coffee on Cat's desk.

"Have you suffered some sort of brain damage?" Cat asked.

"No, I don't think so. I hope not. Why?" Kara asked nervously.

"Getting my lattes is no longer your job." Cat pointed out.

"James mentioned you still didn't have a permanent assistant." Kara explained. "But if you would prefer me to take the coffee away I can."

"No, I'll keep it." Cat said sipping the drink. "How are you?"

"Better thanks."

"You had people here worried."

"I know and I'm sorry."

"It was hardly your fault, unless you were ingesting bio-hazardous material." Cat said. As a silence hung in the air Kara suddenly felt like she was expected to reply and said.

"Um, no...I wasn't."

"Well then." Cat said before staring so intently at Kara the Kryptonian felt like Cat was boring a hole into her. Eventually Cat asked. "Should you be back at work?"

"I've been cleared by a doctor." Kara said. "And I'm not contagious." She added guessing Cat might be worried by germ transfer.

"Sit." Cat ordered causing Kara to drop to the couch as the media mogul continued to stare at her. Eventually Cat commented. "You seem to have lost your bounce." Not sure how to respond Kara just sat silently until Cat said. "Speak."

"It's just I always thought having powers was a good thing. Even after the Red Kryptonite I never viewed powers as a bad thing."

"But now?"

"Now I'm scared of losing control."

"No one wants to lose control." Cat pointed out. Her words seemingly causing Kara to spring up and pace round the office.

"But I don't have that luxury. When I lose control people get hurt. When I had been exposed to Red Kryptonite I threw you off a balcony and broke Alex's arm. This time I broke Alex's hand." Kara said.

"So you are afraid that whatever caused you to loose control this time will happen again and you will hurt or kill some one?" Cat asked bluntly.

"Yes."

"And your solution to this?" Cat asked. "Give up being Supergirl? That won't help, you have powers regardless. Alternatively you could submit yourself to Max, I am sure he has plenty of gadgets he could use on you to suppress your powers and exploit your DNA for his own purposes. Is that what you want?"

"No. But there must be another option." Kara said despondently.

"There is. Have faith in the rest of us. Have faith in your friends and family to notice when something is wrong and let them help you. More importantly be honest. How long were you suffering for before you came and collapsed in my office?"

"Several hours." Kara confessed.

"Yet you know you don't get sick. Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Because I don't want to be a burden."

"Because?"

"I don't want others to suffer because of me."

"Interesting." Cat said sitting back.

"Interesting? Why interesting?"

"Justifiably, given your past, you have a deep rooted fear of abandonment. I believe the real reason you don't want to lean on others as much as you should is because you don't want them to have an excuse to leave you." Cat paused for a second. "I know I may be guilty of fuelling that thinking from the way I treated you after Adam and my incorrect handling of the situation when I first guessed your true identity. However, your family and friends are much better people than I am. They won't abandon you. Lean on them and trust them and you will be fine."

-00-

"Hey Alex, I didn't expect to see you in." Lucy commented as she walked past Alex's lab and saw her working.

"Why?"

"I just assumed you'd be at home, I don't know, sleeping, or spending time with your family."

"Kara's at work and-"

"Wait Kara's at work? Already?"

"Yeah, she is back to normal, physically at least." Alex said. "I am hoping being at work will help her feel normal again and at the very least if Cat Grant is running her ragged she won't have time to dwell."

"I take it she is still taking Lord's words to heart?"

"She is." Alex said. "Hopefully she just needs time."

"If you need any help let me know." Lucy said.

"I will." Alex agreed.

"But I still don't get why you are here, especially if Kara is at work." Lucy said.

"Well, mom and dad are resting before their flight." Alex shrugged. "So I thought I'd come in and try to figure this out."

"Figure what out?" Lucy asked.

"I'm trying to reverse engineer the substance Kara was exposed to."

"Why? And isn't that kind of risky? I mean if Kara flies in won't it start all over again."

"It is in quarantine so the exposure risk should be minimal. I also worked with Hamilton to put in a few extra safeguards so we are as confident as we can be it is safe. But if the worse did happen now we have the cure we can at least treat her." Alex shrugged. "But in answer to your first question, if I can figure out what it was I can start to work out what it was for and then try to come up with a suitable human friendly antidote."

"You think it was to create super humans?" Lucy guessed.

"I don't know, but possibly. It just seems prudent to be prepared for anything."

"I agree." Lucy said before asking. "You talk to your dad about it?"

"No." Alex said. "He told J'onn everything he knew from Cadmus so we wouldn't get anything from it. And if there is a chance he is not fully on our side, for whatever reason, at least we reduce the risk of the work getting out."

"Your dad has done nothing to indicate his is under any influence from Cadmus." Lucy reminded her.

"I know, but he was there a long time." Alex sighed.

"True, but right now if I had to pick which father was hiding something I would pick mine, not yours."

"I'm sorry." Alex said.

"Don't be." Lucy said. "We had issues long before this. Recent events have just brought all of that to the surface. I hope it is paranoia, but deep down….I don't know, my gut feeling is we can't rely on him."

"Sometimes you have to have faith in people." Alex reminded her.

"Is that from the Kara rulebook?" Lucy asked.

"Oh yeah." Alex smiled. "But sometimes she is right."

"But sometimes she is wrong." Lucy said. "Case in point, Maxwell Lord."

"Actually, not even Kara trusts him." Alex reminded her. "Did you find something?"

"Nothing concrete, but Vasquez and I have been going through all the logs from when Lord was here."

"And?"

"He played everything by the book, no unauthorised access to our systems, no stealing of samples. However, just after Vasquez told us about Kara's involvement in the spillage he subtly did something with his phone. From the security footage we can't see what if anything he sent or to who, however the timing seems a little suspicious."

"So what do we do?" Alex asked.

"Keep digging." Lucy said. "In the mean time if you need anything just call me."

"Thanks." Alex said.

-00-

"Are you sure you are going to be okay?" Eliza asked as she and Jeremiah were bidding farewell to their daughters at the airport.

"I'm fine." Kara smiled as she hugged the pair. "Besides I've got Alex."

"You sure?" Eliza pressed, still worried about Kara.

"I'm sure."

"And you?" Eliza asked Alex as she pulled away from Kara and looked at her eldest.

"Me? I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Alex asked.

"Oh, I don't know. The broken hand, getting beaten up my Max's goon, the going without sleep for days, the working yourself into the ground." Kara listed earning an eye roll from Alex who said.

"It's not my fault you are such high maintenance."

"Hey, I'm not that high maintenance." Kara protested.

"You can't even cook." Alex replied.

"Like you can." Kara shot back. "And unlike you I have phobias of kitchen appliances to blame."

"That's what you are going with? You can't cook because of scary popcorn makers?" Alex asked in disbelief.

"Good to see some things never change." Jeremiah smiled as he watched Alex and Kara. The comment causing both daughters to turn and look at him. "But even though you both apparently think you are still teenagers I'm going to miss you."

"You could come and visit more." Kara pointed out.

"Or at least embrace modernish technology and Skype us." Alex added.

"He's getting better." Eliza assured her before drawing Alex in for a hug and whispering. "I know you can't talk about your work. But you are never alone. I will always be there for you. Don't fight the world alone."

-00-

 _ **A week later**_

"Senator, General." Max smiled as he walked into the room they were waiting in.

"Lord." Crane said looking at him. "I assume that you have made progress. After all, all three of us being seen together is a big risk."

"Trust me the risk is worth it. You will want to see my progress."

"So you have actually made progress?" Lane asked. "I ask as it seems like your recent efforts have been spent saving Supergirl."

"Thanks to being involved in the saving of Supergirl I got the information required to overcome the slight problem we were having with the project." Max said.

"And you couldn't have done that without saving Supergirl?" Lane pressed.

"As much as I hate to admit it, no." Max confessed. "The progress was actually made, albeit unwittingly, by Alex Danvers, who, if it were not for her misguided loyalty would be a real asset to our work. Regardless though, I learned enough while I was there to modify our compound and give our subjects new abilities for seventy-two hours."

"Seventy-two?" Crane asked.

"It appears the human body can not handle the long term effects of Kryptonian abilities and after approximately seventy-two hours their cells degrade."

"And?" Lane asked.

"They die, massive coronaries or strokes. The good news is the autopsies show no signs of what we have been doing. As far as the pathologists can tell they tragically died of natural causes."

"An army that lasts seventy-two hours was not the aim." Lane said clearly annoyed.

"True, but instead I have created the ability to give you a strike squad that naturally disbands after seventy-two hours giving us absolute deniability?"

"Something that could be very useful." Crane commented mulling over the possibilities. "It may not be what we set out for, but for now it is a capability we didn't have before."

"Good to see your visit to the DEO was not a complete waste." Lane finally conceded, still not happy with Lord's progress.

"It was anything but a waste. The short time I spent there gave me more information than I have managed to gather in the last year. Plus I started to sow the seed." Max smiled.

"What seed?" Lane asked.

"The seed of doubt." Max said. "Once again Supergirl has unwittingly proved that she can not be controlled. As a military man you know the danger of not controlling ones assets."

"The DEO is not a military organisation." Lane reminded him.

"True, but they do have working there an influential Major."

"You got Lucy to see the threat that Supergirl poses?" General Lane asked hopefully.

"I highlighted the threat to her, we just need to let the doubt sink in. The better news is I am fairly sure Supergirl was listening."

"What good will that do us?" Senator Crane asked.

"She is beginning to lose confidence in herself. Regardless of your views on aliens, Supergirl does genuinely mean well. If she thinks she is a danger to others she will look for a solution."

"A solution you can provide?" Crane asked.

"Who is better placed to come up with a solution? A solution that will end Supergirl whilst providing us with a perfect specimen."

"And if she refuses?" Crane pressed.

"We continue with our original plan and if Supergirl happens to get accidentally exposed and loses control in a rather public way, then you can force the issue of her being controlled." Max smiled.

 **-The End?**

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. At some stage I hope to do a sequel. I appreciate all the comments. For those I couldn't thank through messenger thank you for taking the time to review. In particular thank you Anna and Supergirl for the continual supportive comments.


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